ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Heather Arabadjis is a school teacher in New Jersey elementary school. She teaches ten-year-old children and decides to address the issues faced by them in a creative way.
WHAT SHE WANTED
SHE WANTED TO CREATE a heavily illustrated storybook IN COMIC STYLE, WHERE SHE COULD EXPLORE TOPICS LIKE ANGER MANAGEMENT, AND STRESS DURING TESTS AS WELL AS POLITICAL DEBATES, WITHOUT CHILDREN FEELING TARGETED.
BEGINNING WITH CHARACTER DESIGN
She decided to create a character of a boy who has an alter ego of a monster. WHEN THEY BOY UNDERWENT ANY EMOTIONAL STRESS, IT CAME OUT IN THE FORM OF MONSTER MAS. WHEN THE EMOTIONs were MANAGED, HE TURNED BACK INTO THE BOY. We played with different character styles to bring out the personality of the monster mas in our character. After a lot of struggle, we eventually got our monster mas.
Character Options
We did a bang-up job.
Setting a style
SETTING A STYLE AND CREATING CHARACTERS WITH PERSONALITIES BECOMES IMPORTANT AS THEY REOCCUR THROUGH THE BOOKS.
Heather would write her story in New York, and send us the script along with how she wants her artwork represented, leaving us to take creative control.
All artworks were transferred to her digitally and printed and published in New York.
During the illustration process, we had to make sure to manage
children from all ethnicities in the illustrations.
Illustration for monster mas.
Illustration for monster mas vs the test.
Illustration for monster mas runs for president!
